Chapter 21

Are There Counterfeit Forms of Revelation?

"Those things . . . are not of me" (D&C 28:11).

Satan and God's Plan for His Children

In the premortal existence, before the foundations of the earth were laid, "there was war in heaven" (Revelation 12:7). In ways and for reasons that have not been revealed, Lucifer was able to convince a "third part of the hosts of heaven" to follow him in an attempt to overthrow God (D&C 29:36). They were thrust out of heaven and allowed to come to earth (see Revelation 12:9).

In other words, the war that began in heaven is not over; it has merely changed battlegrounds, and it continues today with increasing fury and intensity as the Second Coming of the Lord draws closer.

We know that revelation, in all of its marvelous variety and richness, is absolutely critical to our Heavenly Father's plan. Without revelation, we cannot "come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him" (Moroni 10:32). Without revelation, we cannot ever become like God and return to live with Him. Without revelation, this Church could not be "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" (D&C 1:30). Without revelation, we cannot get the personalized answers we need to deal with the countless challenges, questions, crises, and setbacks of life. Without revelation, we cannot possibly know how to act more like Christ in every situation that confronts us.

Why then should it surprise us that Satan would make revelation a strategic objective in his efforts to thwart the work of God? If he can convince us that it is not real, or even confuse and deceive us about the voice of the Lord, then he has made great strides in his efforts to prevent us from entering the strait and narrow gate that leads to eternal life.

False Revelation in the Early Church

Elder Boyd K. Packer wrote: "The first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of the channels of communication of those he intends to conquer."¹

Satan surely is cunning enough to understand that revelation is the means by which the Father communicates His mind and will to His children. If Satan can disrupt that communication, then he can wreak havoc in his ongoing war against God and all that is good.

All of us are familiar with the opposition the Church experienced during the early years of our history. Mockery, ridicule, persecution, robbery, pillage, exile, and murder were all the results of Satan's violent opposition to the Restoration. It started on the very first day of the Restoration, when Satan tried to destroy Joseph in the Sacred Grove. For Joseph and Hyrum, it ended in an upstairs bedroom in Carthage Jail.

But Satan initiated another kind of opposition during all of this. Satan not only waged war against Joseph Smith and the Church, but he also fought a bitter battle against the very concept of revelation. If he could not stop revelation, he could certainly sow confusion, deception, and misdirection. Some examples from the early history of the Church illustrate just how cunning and deceptive he was.

Oliver Cowdery, Hiram Page, and a Seer Stone. Just a few months after the Church was organized, two situations arose that involved false revelation. Joseph began to arrange and copy the revelations he had received. Oliver Cowdery, who was in Fayette with the Whitmer family, wrote a letter to Joseph saying he had found an error in one of the revelations. He felt his position as Second Elder in the Church gave him the right to correct the Prophet. He felt so strongly that he was right that he wrote: "I command you in the name of God to erase those words, that no priestcraft be amongst us!"

When Joseph went to Fayette a short time later, he found that Oliver had convinced the entire Whitmer family that he was right. Joseph said that it was only with great labor and perseverance that he was able to convince them that Oliver's stand was not from the Lord.² Shortly thereafter, a second problem occurred. Joseph wrote:

To our great grief, . . . we soon found that Satan had been lying in wait to deceive, and seeking whom he might devour. Brother Hiram Page* had in his possession a certain stone, by which he had obtained certain "revelations" concerning the upbuilding of Zion, the order of the Church, etc., all of which were entirely at variance with the order of God's house . . . as well as in our late revelations.³

Initially, when Joseph could not sway those who were influenced by these purported revelations, he inquired of the Lord in the matter. In the revelation that came as a response to that inquiry (D&C 28), the Lord responded to both situations that were causing discord. With some difficulty, Joseph was able to convince both Oliver and the Whitmers of their error. In that revelation, the Lord also laid down two important principles about revelation.

Oliver was first told that "no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Jun." (D&C 28:2).** 

Then Oliver was told, "Thou shalt take thy brother, Hiram Page, between him and thee alone, and tell him that those things that he hath written from that stone are not of me and that Satan deceiveth him" (D&C 28:11).

Here the Lord clearly stated that what was occurring was false revelation and that the source of it was Satan himself. It didn't matter how plausible it sounded or that it came somewhat miraculously through a so-called seer stone. Hiram Page and the Whitmers had been deceived by false revelation, even though they were some of the most faithful members of the Church at that time.

Missionaries and False Spirits. Just a few months later, with the Church barely a year old, Satan continued to attempt to deceive the Saints through false revelation. Parley P. Pratt and others had been out on missions and had encountered different "spiritual phenomena" that were troublesome.

As I went forth among the different branches, some very strange spiritual operations were manifested, which were disgusting, rather than edifying. Some persons would seem to swoon away, and make unseemly gestures, and be drawn or disfigured in their countenances. Others would fall into ecstasies, and be drawn into contortions, cramps, fits, etc. Others would seem to have visions and revelations, which were not edifying, and which were not congenial to the doctrine and spirit of the gospel. In short, a false and lying spirit seemed to be creeping into the Church. ⁴

Joseph inquired of the Lord again, who responded with what is now section 50 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Once again the Lord clearly stated that these so-called spiritual experiences were from Satan.

Behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many spirits which are false spirits, which have gone forth in the earth, deceiving the world.

And also Satan hath sought to deceive you, that he might overthrow you (D&C 50:1–3).

A Discourse on False Revelation. Much later, the problem with false spirits in the Church was still prevalent enough that the Prophet felt compelled to address the issue in a lengthy editorial in the Times and Seasons under the date of April 1, 1842. The editorial began: "Recent occurrences that have transpired amongst us render it an imperative duty devolving upon me to say something in relation to the spirits by which men are actuated."⁵

In the editorial, Joseph listed numerous examples of false spirits influencing individuals. Some were from the Old and New Testaments, some from more recent history. Some were occurring at that time within the Church itself. He described a great variety of bizarre and unseemly behavior. Joseph noted that these various manifestations were so imitative of true and valid forms of revelation that only the Spirit of God could help distinguish between them.

There Is Counterfeit Revelation

The word counterfeit comes from two root words. The first root, "counter," means "in the wrong way; contrary to the right course; in the reverse direction." The second root, "feit" comes from the Latin frere, which means to make or do. Thus, a counterfeit is an imitation created with the purpose to defraud or deceive.⁶ The closer the imitation is to the original, the better the counterfeit and the more effective is the fraud and deception. Detection of a good counterfeit generally requires someone who is totally familiar with the genuine original and who has had much experience in dealing with counterfeits.

In light of this definition, these false spirits can be legitimately described as "counterfeit revelation." Such revelation is opposite or contrary to true revelation, and its purpose is to reverse the Lord's work and take people in a direction opposite from the true way.

Just as true revelation can involve a broad spectrum of experiences, so too can false revelation. In each case Satan seeks to pass these experiences off as being from God. Note the words of Elder Packer in the accompanying box. The possibility of false revelation is such that we must be "ever on guard" against it. False revelation is not something that happens only rarely. It is an ever-present possibility.

Modern Examples of Counterfeit Revelation

While we may not today see some of the bizarre and outlandish behaviors that were present in the early Church, false spirits and other forms of counterfeit revelation are nevertheless present today. It is a mistaken idea—and therefore from Satan himself—that there will always be something dark and sinister about false revelation. We say again, the idea of a counterfeit suggests something so close to the original that it is difficult to tell the difference. What follows are only a few ways we may see false revelation today.

Our Own Emotions As a Form of Counterfeit Revelation

Unfortunately, confusing our emotions with the Spirit is a form of false revelation that surfaces all too often. As Elder Packer said above, "The spiritual part of us and the emotional part of us are so closely linked, it is possible to mistake an emotional impulse for something spiritual." On another occasion, he said, "In your emotions, the spirit and the body come closest to being one."⁷

We noted earlier that the Lord defines the "spirit of revelation" as when the Spirit speaks to our minds through our thoughts and to our hearts through our feelings (see D&C 8:2–3). Since our spiritual selves are closely tied with the center of our emotions, this creates a problem for us. It is an easy thing to mistake strong emotions for spiritual promptings. And the opposite is true as well. Sometimes we think a true spiritual prompting is "just us" being our normal selves.

This confusion can rise sharply if the feelings we are experiencing are connected to something very important to us or that we want very badly. When we strongly desire something, our emotions can rise to a fever pitch, which only makes us more vulnerable to mixing our emotions up with spiritual promptings.

A fairly common expression of this error is found in the courting process. A young man and a young woman begin to date each other. Everything is fine until one of the individuals begins to sense that their dating partner is not as excited or committed to the relationship as they are. When everything they try fails to correct that situation, their feelings can become both painful and intense. In this state of urgency—or, in some cases, downright desperation—what happens? They get a "revelation" that the Lord wants them to marry.***

In a way, this leads to a form of "spiritual coercion." They hope that the partner's desire to do the Lord's "will" in the matter will convince them to accept the "revelation" and agree to marry.

The late Carlfred Broderick, a renowned Latter-day Saint family therapist, reported that when his oldest daughter returned home from BYU after one semester, she excitedly told him that eight different boys had received a revelation that she was to marry them. She was thrilled. With tongue in cheek, Brother Broderick called this "hormonal revelation."⁸

This is a good example of how emotions can become counterfeit revelation. Though Dr. Broderick was clearly having some fun with the example of his daughter, in a much more serious tone, he went on to note that in many cases even married individuals can be misled by their feelings, which they think are from the Lord. In some cases such feelings can lead to adulterous relationships, but even when the two individuals may restrain themselves, the "emotional divorce" often leads to a dissolution of the marriage.

I am impressed over and over again with how easily some Latter-day Saints permit themselves to get into potentially destructive situations because they know that only good people are involved and that the love they feel is pure and "special." I am particularly impressed with the frequency with which they claim that they felt the "Spirit" guiding them.⁹

Another too frequent example of this is when fine people try to justify their involvement in a financial scheme by convincing themselves that it is "inspired." In reality, they are twisting their own feelings into purported revelations; the result is to entice the unwary and the gullible to invest with them.

A less frequent example, but one that is not unheard of, is a missionary who goes into the mission field and then decides not to stay. He knows that if he simply says he's going home, he will look unfaithful or unworthy. So he convinces himself that his feelings are coming from the Lord. In one case, a missionary told me that the Lord had let him know that he had fulfilled his purpose for coming on a mission in the first three months he had been out, and that he now needed to go home to accomplish other of the Lord's purposes. In another case, an elder said that his girlfriend, who was not a member, was having serious problems at home. He said the Lord had told him he could do a greater work by returning early and converting her, then taking her to the temple.

Whisperings of the Evil One

Just as the Spirit whispers to us, Satan and his followers can also speak to us through thoughts and feelings. We see this when we are tempted to do wrong and begin to rationalize that it is not harmful. Nephi taught clearly some of the things Satan whispers to us:

• "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us" (2 Nephi 28:7).
• "Lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this" (2 Nephi 28:8).
• "All is well in Zion" (2 Nephi 28:21).
• "There is no hell; . . . I am no devil, for there is none" (2 Nephi 28:22).

A common technique is when Satan tries to discourage good people. Faithful Latter-day Saints are not vulnerable to temptation in the same way as those out in the world are. A man or woman who has never smoked or drunk alcohol in a lifetime isn't particularly tempted to stop in a bar and have a drink on the way home from work. So Satan comes at them in a different way. And one of his most effective whispering campaigns goes something like this. "Look at all the times when you fall short of what God expects of you. Therefore, you must be failing."

This can be very effective because he is always right in that argument. We are not perfect. There are numerous areas of our life where we know we could and should be doing better. Someone once noted that there are three areas of endeavor where we can never come away saying to ourselves, "I've done everything that needs to be done, and I did them right." Those areas are: Being a parent. Being a priesthood or auxiliary leader. Being a teacher.

Therefore, it is not an uncommon thing for members, especially some of our sisters, to always be comparing themselves "upward"; that is, they find someone in the family or the ward or the neighborhood who always seems to do things better than they, or who does more than they are doing, or whose children seem better behaved, or who— . . . The list is almost endless. And the result is a constant, nagging feeling of failure, of inadequacy.

Ironically, another whispering campaign comes after he has successfully enticed us into some form of sin. Then he switches tactics and whispers such things as, "You have offended God. You are unclean and therefore unworthy to approach Him in prayer. Surely God cannot still love you after what you've done. You may as well give up, for you've put yourself beyond His reach."

What the Spirit teaches us is that our Father is easy to please, but hard to satisfy. To illustrate what we mean by that, let's take the example of a baby. When it takes those first wobbly steps, the parents are delighted and cheer and clap. They are greatly pleased. But are they satisfied? Is that all they expect? Of course not. The child still has a lifetime of achievement to pursue. So it is with us. Our Father is pleased with any forward movement, any drawing closer to the Spirit, any act of service or obedience. He will not be fully satisfied until we have become like Him. But just because we are not perfect, that doesn't mean He is not pleased with what we are doing or the progress we are making. But Satan does not want us to have such feelings and so constantly tries to discourage us and cause us to despair.

The Savior taught that "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14). That is a concept with which most of us are very familiar. But do we also remember what He said just prior to that? He called on us to "enter ye in at the strait gate," because "wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat" (Matthew 7:13).

That is a sobering and yet insightful description of life. It also says much about how Satan works. There is only one, very narrow way to eternal life, but there are countless roads to destruction. And it seems that Satan doesn't much care which gate we choose to enter, or which path we choose to take, as long as he keeps us from the true gate and the narrow way. We can be an atheist, or we can be a religious fanatic—either is equally effective in keeping us off the narrow path. We can worship a crocodile, as the ancient Egyptians did, or we can worship a Corvette purchased at the nearest Chevrolet dealership. As long as we don't properly worship God, Satan wins.

And so it is with false revelation. In rare cases, Satan may appear as an angel of light (see 2 Corinthians 11:14). More frequently he whispers false messages in our ears. When we have strong feelings about something, feelings originating from him or from ourselves, he may whisper to us that they are from the Lord.

He leads people into bizarre, outlandish behavior, then convinces them that this is how the Spirit works. Thus he gets them with a double blow. They are offending the Spirit with behaviors that do not edify, and they are filled with pride and conviction that he or she is indeed one of the Lord's elite because they are so "in touch" with the Spirit.

Rumors

Another technique Satan uses to deceive and confuse is found in the all too common tendency of some Church members to accept every wild rumor, every sensational story, and every dramatic report of some supposed "spiritual experience." This is then passed from person to person and spreads rapidly in the Church. It doesn't seem to matter that some of these reports are completely counter to common sense or that they contradict known gospel principles or established programs and policies of the Church. President Harold B. Lee spoke of these to the brethren of the priesthood some years ago:

There are some as wolves among us. By that, I mean some who profess membership in this church who are not sparing the flock. And among our own membership, men are arising speaking perverse things. Now perverse means diverting from the right or correct, and being obstinate in the wrong, willfully, in order to draw the weak and unwary members of the Church away after them. . . .

I should like now to make reference to some of these [perverse means]. The first is the spread of rumor and gossip (we have mentioned this before) which, when once started, gains momentum as each telling becomes more fanciful, until unwittingly those who wish to dwell on the sensational repeat them in firesides, in classes, in Relief Society gatherings and priesthood quorum classes without first verifying the source before becoming a party to causing speculation and discussions that steal time away from the things that would be profitable and beneficial and enlightening to their souls. ¹⁰

Some of these stories are so ridiculous and so counter to plain old common sense that one would think they would die a natural death, perhaps after everyone has a good laugh. But they don't. For that reason, I choose not to give any examples here, even of the most ludicrous and unbelievable. There are sufficient examples out there. They do not need repeating here.

In Summary

In a way, all of this would be quite depressing and discouraging were it not for one important truth. God has not left us on our own in this struggle. Heavenly Father knows all that Satan does and has given us the help we need to detect him and those who speak for him. As He Himself has stated: "My wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil" (D&C 10:43). Joseph Smith also made this abundantly clear in his famous statement:

The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.¹¹

The Lord has given us principles that help us know the difference between true and counterfeit revelation.

And finally, in the words of President James E. Faust:

We all have an inner braking system that will stop us before we follow Satan too far down the wrong road. It is the still, small voice within us. But if we allow ourselves to succumb to Satan's tempting, the braking system begins to leak brake fluid and our stopping mechanism becomes weak and ineffective.¹²

Notes

Note: All emphasis in scriptures in this work has been added by the author.

* Hiram Page was married to one of the Whitmer daughters and seems to have been living with the Whitmers at the time.

** Clearly the Lord is not speaking of personal revelation given to individuals, but of revelation given for the whole Church, which only the prophet is authorized to receive.

*** In my experience with young adults an institute teacher, as a bishop, and as a president of a singles stake at Brigham Young University, I cam to believe that in most of these cases, the individual getting the “revelation” sincerely believed that he was receiving feelings form the Lord. It was not just a cynical, calculated form of manipulation.

^ 1. Boyd K. Packer, "Reverence Invites Revelation," 21.

^ 2. Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 1:105.

^ 3. Ibid., 1:109–10; emphasis added.

^ 4. Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, 61–62.

^ 5. Smith, History of the Church, 4:571.

^ 6. Random House Dictionary, s.v., counter, counterfeit.

^ 7. Packer, "Personal Revelation: The Gift, the Test, and the Promise," 61.

^ 8. Carlfred Broderick, One Flesh, One Heart, 21.

^ 9. Ibid.; emphasis in original.

^ 10. Harold B. Lee, "Admonitions for the Priesthood of God," 105.

^ 11. Smith, History of the Church, 4:540.

^ 12. James E. Faust, "The Forces That Will Save Us," 6.